Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-05-27
Of Birmingham, Snd five at Sheffield, q
new town on the Tennessee river.

Let me add just few words about
Sheffield at this point as an evidence of
surprising push and energy which is de-
veloping this new country. Sheffield is
practically still on paper. 1t has nothing
of consequence yet except the Tennessee
river, .iust below the Mussel shoals, in
front of it, and the rich iron and coal
mines twenty or thirty miles to the south.
The reason for its creation is the water
transportation. Chattanooga lies above
the MUssel shosls, utterly helpless so far
as competition by river is concerned, and
Birmingham lies inland without any
other dependence than the railroads Shelf
field will have to transport both coal and
ore some distance to its furnaces, but its
advantage of shipping will be decided.
Its projectors, E. w. Cole of Nashville
and others, insist that the coal and ore
transportation thirty miles will not be
much more costly than the haul of two
miles from either mountain which is nee
essary to reach the center of the Blr-
mingham valley. Be that as 1t msy, how
ever, as Mr.. Cole told me the company
has proven its faith by it's works and
made contracts for furnaces alone
amounting to S568,000. Other manu-
featuring establishments are expected to
follow around this nucleus of furnaces
and the town pretty well built up and
still growing is to be there to meet them.
Bessemer with two furnaces building
and two more to be built would make
smother good example of these magic
cities, but Birmingham itself offers Just
now all the evidence necessary that no
western towns ever forged ahead faster
than this new south. The place is
pandemonium of industry. Half the sheds
in the town seem to be rising q story
week, and stretching further every day
through the smoke from the furnaces at
either end of the town. New manUfac-
tories are building, new business blocks
going up, a new hotel rising to its third
story and residences almost without num-
Der springing up in every possible direC-
ton. The business streets, which 8 few
months ago were mud, are being paved
with Belgian blocks from the mountains,
and the binding smoke from the kettles
of pitch, the almost impossible
pavements and the tcot and Clang of
the little misnamed dummy" railroad,
which runs every direction, added to
the mortar beds, brick piles and scat
folding make the little city seem as if it
were carrying the business OF the ration
on its shoulders. The progress seems to
be genuine, though the biggest iron com
panies are admitting some little dowqz
ward tendency in trade during tbs laSE
few months. The Tennessee CoI&paGy,
with its $50, 900 aCreslof coal land a6n$5,-
900, 600 worth!of machinery and bui dings,
seems to be only holding its own in his,
market. Its stock has been as high as
ll6 and after bringing in new companies
and consolidating it into the concern as it
IS at present it has sold at "a l don't
know the exact quotations to-day, but
anyone interested cen fnd out by looking
st the regular Wall ctreet list and make
some guess as to tendency Of business
here by the figures it shows some days
the secretary of the company, aSCri0es
the decline partly to the stagnation in the
iron business and partly To the new inter
state law which would stop all Bifr1ing-
hams building progress at stroke if the
short end long haul clause were en-
forced.
THE ADVANTAGE OVER PITTsBURG.
AS TO the cost of producing pig and the
possibilities of still running when north
ern furnaces are shut down, fad nearly
as many different opinions as there are fur
mace companies. The advantage over
Pittsburg, they say, is in the transporta-
ton of ore, which in their case is at their
furnace doors, and in the other must be
brought from Lake Superior. Any other
advantages are not SO apparent, though
they have cheap labor, based upon the
rates to colored men and very materially
reduced by the employment of eonviCts in
the mines. Mr.. Barron of the Tennes-
see Company probably came nearest to
q fair average cost when he said, under
oath before the railroad commission, that
the cost was about Sl4 per ton. Other
people, however, mention 50 and $40 and
even lower as the figures.
The difficulty with property and
business values in this country fer the
future seems to be its absolute dependence
on the price of the one article of pig
iron. That fact seems to be recognized,
but does not seem 10 interfere with other
in the least. Speaking to
Editor Grady of the Atlanta Constitu- !
ton the other day about this unlimited
confidence in the future, he said the |
great reason for it was very much the |
same as the one George Francis Train |
expressed in his great scheme for running !
the government. You know the story, |
lie told his friends that if he had poses |
sion of the Treasury he would give every |
man who came to him all the gold and |
silver he could carry away if he would !
only promise to Iput it into buildings or
mills or machinery that would manu-
.acture or produce something.
"But your money would run out some
day." was suggested.
"Of course" replied Train, unrutflsd,
land there might be 8 panic that would
bring down plenty of men, but it would
not hurt the buildings or machinery"
The moral of this take to be that this
has something solid in the way of
mines and furnaces to show for every
dollar that has gone into it and that,
whether the companies have trouble or
not, the new south and its industries
nave come to stay. MARTIN.
A Sudden Death